The video clip after the break starts off with a few minutes of demonstration. [Garrett] managed to code all kinds of animations for the hardware including several different styles of color sweeps and fades. You may start to think that the three bands always display the same patterns but keep watching and you’ll see a sparkle pattern that proves each dot can be addressed individually.

About 2:20 seconds into the video [Garrett] explains how he pulled it off and shows off the driver hardware. The strips are glued to a band of webbing that slides over the hat. The wires that drive the lights were fed through the center of some paracord and connect to an Arduino housed in a 3D printed case. Power is provided by a portable USB battery with a ShiftBrite shield and an MSGEQ7 chip complete the parts list.

14 thoughts on “A blinky fedora to ring in the New Year”

Not really…Best I can do is a cross between boonie hat and fedora. It has a distinct fedora pinch on the top, though I HAVE managed to mash it up pretty badly by shoving it in my backpack, washing off dust, etc.

Nice work on the patterns! Does anyone know of a good resource or have any insight the code used to generate patterns used on rgb led strips? I imagine there are many ways to do it, some being more efficient than others.